EricWiberg

Here is that Plate from St Phillipe... at the bottom center (below the "A") is a straight on view of the head/cutwater. The plank labeled "c" is between the upper/lower knees and seems to indicate a thinner width board/plank... as opposed to there being nothing at all between the knees.

Thank you, Marc.. and I believe that the other masts will - eventually - have such a coming around them as well? Also, regarding the space between the upper and lower knees... was this always 1) completely open and filled with a carving, or 2) or was the gap not.open, but filled with a thinner board that carvings/frieze was then applied to? I think the St Phillipe monograph suggests a thinner board in the gap that carvings are then affixed to?

I needed to complete one final item before I could start refining the head... a solid base for my wooden bowsprit mast. I sawed a fine slot in the base of the mast and inserted a piece of styrene to duplicate the tab on the kit mast. This tab snaps into a square of styrene attached to the front edge of the middle gun deck.... the kit slot for the bowsprit mast is faintly visible to the left of the white tab, showing that the mast base moved forward about 1 inch. Then I used a laser level to make sure the base of the mast was locked onto the middle gun deck in the right position before I cemented the base in (I may even beef this up further with some ApoxieScuplt). Finally... a rough template for the head is held in place... I have some adjusting to do! My goal... develop and fit as much of the head in advance as I possibly can.

And the main structure of the beakhead bulkhead is complete. Finishing the timberheads and cap rail will be easy. I tacked the red gun port lids in place just for a visual aid. I was simply going to scribe them in, but an even simpler method is just to cut the openings in and drop the gun port lids in, and they will be closed anyways. I may make a little frame on the inside bottom of the f'ocsle deck that I can simply slide the catheads into when that time comes (2026?!). That leaves the "decoration"... the monogram La Reyne cartouche over each door, a resin casting of the Central Arms of France positioned in the center between the two rails, the continuation of the broadside listons d'or onto the bulkhead drift rail. And of course, learning how to make an egg and dart moulding for the wide rail that mates with the top upper wale. And.... waiting for the Jan Pieper book to glean any further ideas! One note that might seem to border on heresy... I will NOT be adding any steps/ladders as the kit beakhead bulkhead has. First, it strikes me as nigh impossible to clamber up those steps up and steep and high bulkhead, especially in any kind of weather action... I would just use the doors! Second, I looked at drawings of Royal Duc and Royal Louis in the 1660's/70's time frame, and I do not see any steps. And I will have a large, flat and uninterrupted area for a field of fluer de lis.... After the cap rail/timberheads are in, I can fiddle with the ornamental items, but now I can turn most of my attention to finishing the head itself. Oh... and also finishing the bowsprit. Oh - and thank you for zip ties! I had been using my 45 year old kit decks in the hull as I was checking for fit of the beakhead bulkhead and other items. I decided I better put the new decks that I will be using in place to check for fit, and zip ties helped tighten and hold everything in place.

Ahhh, thank you, Marc... even more things to think about for the future! My SR already seems more white than the original black (i.e. polystyrene revisions). what is some more white?!

Marc, I am very interested in burying myself in this book! I am just about to cut in the cathead openings under the f'ocsle deck... and there is so much room for ornamentation/decoration on the beakhead bulkhead alone. I believe that Dassie had a comment to the effect that SR 1671 "was suddued, but very tasteful.."... ? And that concept changed with SR 1689, as you are showing. To be more precise, I will be curious if with SR 1671, they took advantage of every possible area, like simple door jambs, etc. to decorate.. and the allegories that the decorations were meant to convey. The pictures that you have shown look like you can really see the details. P.S. and I need to look back at what you did with parchment paper!

1) Marc and Marcus.. I also ordered the book. I will actually hold off on decoration details until I can get the book 2) got a bowsprit made from wood! Using the St Phillipe monograph as a guide, a woodworking friend designed a jig for his lathe to reproduce all of the SR masts/yards sometime in the future. Now that I have a bowsprit, I can finished the bulkhead and pivot to the head. I really beefed up the support structures for the bowsprit deck... the bowsprit now will go into the middle gun deck some 20mm ahead of where it anchors in the kit; a simple "foot" that attaches to the middle gun deck should accomplish that. Oh.. starting to put in the two gun ports on the upper gun deck facing forward. It makes sense to me to have them open by swinging sideways as I have seen in some models/drawings, as the cathead beams will be slung above them.

Marcus, thank you for the compliment, but especially the link to this book!

The clinker planking on the beakhead bulkhead is done. Now just the finishing touches and carefully trimming the plank edges for the best fit, and finishing the other woodwork before progressing to the upper bulkhead. So far, so good, though I am pretty sure the French carpenters would have finished their clinker planking before my miniature planking was half done!

Marc, thank you for the observations! I was actually studying the La Reyne drawing when your second reply popped up, as I couldn't figure out what was above the doors.... the Coat of Arms in the center is easy via resin casting, but I couldn't figure out if I was seeing animal heads or what above the doors. Also, there is something - for lack of a better term! - "squiggly" on the door frames that I was thinking of duplicating. I think I will clinker plank first to see exactly what I have to add to the door frames, and then apply the "squiggly" on top of that. Perhaps they are just some acanthus leaves twined together? I will also look at somew other drawings and models to see...

Good day for a snowstorm! A lot of fiddle work now... not sitting at the model for hours, maybe 10 minutes at a time making adjustments and letting glue dry. Applied the lower rail, and it matches up with the upper wale of the two top wales. This will eventually have an egg and dart molding on it, but I have plenty of time to study what Marc LaGuardia did on his build log. I am slowly building the doors and the frames, then I will clinker plank the lower half. I still have to cut openings for the catheads, four circular gun ports on the f'ocsle, and two gun ports on the upper gun deck. Slowly but surely...

Since I have to wait for some glue to dry.. a quick update. My "proof of concept" beakhead bulkhead is in the garbage; it served its purpose, but there were some things that I wanted to correct. The first lesson was for me to make the bulkhead in two parts, and then attach them together as one piece. Also, the S-curve side profile wasn't quite what I wanted, so I started again with the lower half of the bulkhead. This strikes me as much better. The planking you see is not the finished planking, but what I would call "strength" planking to thicken the bulkhead and keep it from flexing. I also started drilling the bowsprit hole in the bowsprit deck. I still have a ways to go in gently shaving the hole into an oval shape, but I realized I better fasten some styrene pieces on the underside of the deck to strengthen the deck before I started to make the ellipse any larger. If I have calculated correctly, the bowsport will just kiss the very bottom of the beakhead bulkhead; maybe, maybe not! Now on to starting the top half of bulkhead - and I can also start framing the doors. My doors will be closed, so I don't care about the framework and support brackets on the inside of the hull showing up.

Marc, that does look like a fascinating book... and you are right - I can't find a single copy for sale!

A big exhale, as it appears that the concept I have for the beakhead bulkhead might actually work. First, I went through several iterations of a card template to find a design that fit in with the bulwark "cheeks" (extensions). The next step was create an S-curve side profile for the beakhead bulkhead. I basically used the kit bulkhead S-curve; as Marc LaGuardia has observed though, Dutch ships often had a slight bulge (baby bump?) forward at the bottom of the bulkhead, upwards to about halfway up the height of the door before it started curving aft again.. note the dotted line. The look is subtle, and I tried to keep it minimal. We shall see. The next step was to use that paper contour to develop three 2mm thick ribs that that styrene bulkhead would be glued to and thus the bulkhead would assume that S-curve profile. Again, the ribs basically match the kit S-profile, except for the very small bulge at the base of each rib. I used 0.25mm thick styrene sheet for the bulkead, as I figured that paper thin styrene would follow the contours of the ribs much easier than thicker styrene sheet. I can easily bulk up the bulkhead with additional strips on the inside where no one will see. All three ribs are glued on to the bulkhead... of course, much of the rib structure will be wasted away by my Dremel. Finally, the bulkhead simply laying in place.. Now the real fun starts. I will NOT create two gun ports at the bowsprit deck level... with my bulwark cheek extensions wrapping around, they would be useless. I may put two gun ports on the next deck up, the upper gun deck. Finally, I am also leaning towards four forward facing circular gun ports on the quarter deck, though I don't see a need to arm them. Oh - since my catheads will not be laying on the quarter deck, there will also be no interference there (the catheads will be attached to the bottom of the quarter deck beams). Finally, I will plank the bulkhead. Pretty sure that I will use clinker planking (where the planks overlap), as Marc has noted that this seems to be another characteristic of the Dutch... a possible reason for this mught be that clinker planking would be more waterproof than carvel planking in a location like the beakhead bulkhead.

The beakhead bulkhead. I made a number of measurements, and have cut several cardboard templates this morning. I am in no rush these next few days. It makes sense to simply look at the cardboard templates off and on for several days and and think "what could go wrong here..."? I am leaning towards using 1mm thick sheet for the bulkhead... 2mm seems way to thick and harder too work with.